Monthly Archives: January 2010

An nginx/PHP gotcha

If you are allowing larger-than-default files to be uploaded to an nginx server with PHP FCGI, you need to alter both the php.ini and the nginx.conf. In particular, for nginx.conf, you need to use the client_max_body_size directive to set the … Continue reading

Posted in Technical Notes | Leave a comment

Buzzity buzz

A lot of folks on Facebook have been sending me links for a new website called “Menzies House”. According to the blurb, it’s the “leading Australian blog for conservative, centre-right and libertarian thinkers and activists”, which must come as news to the mob at Catallaxy (which is still in technical exile).
A perfunctory investigation reveals that [...] Continue reading

Posted in Cross Posted from Club Troppo, Metablogging | Leave a comment

Staggering news

I’ve changed my main programming font from Bitstream Vera Sans Mono to Inconsolata. The latter is slightly neater and more compact than the former, but I will always retain fond memories of Vera.

Posted in Geekery | Leave a comment

The happy homestead

For so long as I can remember, Darwin has been a cosmopolitan small city. Of Australia’s capital cities it has the highest fraction of people born overseas. In particular there are large contingents of Darwinites from south east asia. I … Continue reading

Posted in Education, Politics - Northern Territory | Leave a comment

Clearing the Debts

My calculations say that between expected expenses, required savings and HECS debt payments, I need about 90 weeks to “clear the deck” and get into positive net worth territory. At which point I need to salary sacrifice like a madman, … Continue reading

Posted in Money, Thought Bubbles | Leave a comment

Google develops moral minerals

Google’s announced that they were the subject of a precise and sophisticated attack, apparently aimed at getting access to the GMail accounts of pro-democracy critics of the Chinese Communist regime, both living in China and abroad.
Google don’t think that the accounts were compromised but can’t be sure.
In response Google have said that they are considering [...] Continue reading

Posted in Cross Posted from Club Troppo, IT and Internet, Politics - international | 2 Comments

Two things I like about my resume

You can see a link to it on the left side (if you’re reading this on my blog, rather than Facebook). The first thing I like is the style. I take no credit for this: it’s a template that comes … Continue reading

Posted in Thought Bubbles, Work | 2 Comments

DadHacker should be a book, frankly

A great blog. I’ve been re-reading it from beginning to end. This sentence seemed particularly appropriate, given the current sturm und drang about “NoSQL” databases: Databases make lousy file systems. File systems make lousy databases. There is a circle in … Continue reading

Posted in Geeky Musings | Leave a comment

Automated backups for Ozblogistan

It’s a cliche amongst nerds that everyone preaches automated backups, and very few have it. Partly because it’s surprisingly fiddly to set up “right”. And even fiddlier to do restoration testing. Still, one thing at a time. I’ve just now … Continue reading

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Too many books

It turns out that I have so many books stuffed away in my Amazon cart’s “Saved Items” section that I’ve exceeded the maximum limit. In case you’re wondering, Amazon won’t let you store more than 600 titles in that list. … Continue reading

Posted in Books | 2 Comments